UPDATED: Airplane crash reported at Humboldt County airport

Rescue crews at the scene of a plane crash Friday afternoon near the Dinsmore Airport in Humboldt County. The plane caught fire. At least one person survived the wreck and was taken by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Redding.

Lyle Johnson

DINSMORE -- A 65-year-old man identified as a flight instructor from Garberville suffered major facial injuries and a broken leg in an airplane crash at the Humboldt County-owned Dinsmore airport off Highway 36 near the Humboldt-Trinity border.

The flight instructor, who was airlifted to Mercy Medical Center in Redding for treatment, was able to get out of the airplane with his student before it was engulfed in flames, emergency personnel reported en route to the hospital.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said the 30-year-old student from Redway suffered bruises and scrapes in the crash.

The airplane, which crashed nose first, is registered to Tyler P. Lewis of Redway, according to FAA records.

A California Highway Patrol accident web site, which listed the 12:27 p.m., incident as an aircraft emergency, reported shortly after the crash that flames were visible and that 29 gallons of gas were on board the six-seat Cessna 172 aircraft.

The FAA spokesman said the aircraft, which was manufactured in 1963, was destroyed and the cause of the crash, which occurred off the end of the airport's runway, was not yet known.

It was reported that the airplane had stalled as it tried to land and that California Department of Transportation crews working on Hughway 36 heard and saw the plane crash, Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey said.

They rushed to aid of the injured pilot and his passenger, he said, adding that they helped the pair get out of the plane before it caught fire and burned.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.